RIVERSIDE (CBSLA.com) — A woman was arrested early Tuesday morning in connection with a bizarre string of crimes, including the stabbing of a dog and an elderly woman in Riverside.
Shannon Lynn Jones, 25, was arrested by a joint law enforcement effort around 2:45 a.m., Riverside police said.
Jones was apprehended “after a short vehicle pursuit in the Wildomar area of Riverside County,”Sgt. David Amador said. After crashing a stolen Toyota Camry, she fled on foot and was later taken into custody without incident.
Authorities had been searching for Jones since Monday when an 80-year-old woman was heard moaning inside her home at a senior mobile home park called The Meadows. She was found beaten and stabbed around 8 a.m., and her white Toyota Camry had been stolen.
The woman was hospitalized and was lasted reported to be in stable condition, police said.
The stabbing apparently happened some time after Jones visited the home of Kim and Suzy Lyman, who found her wearing a hard hat, sitting in their living room at 4 a.m.
Jones, of Bishop, told the Lymans she had been hiding in a shed because her husband was trying to kill her. Suzy Lyman said she saw that one of her kitchen knives was at the woman’s feet and discreetly moved it away.
“That was one knife we got away from her,” Suzy Lyman said. “We don’t know how many other knives she might have had.”
The early morning visit became more and more bizarre up until the woman left. The Lymans did not call police – until they discovered their dog had been stabbed several hours later.
“I should have shot her,” Kim Lyman said. “Seriously. If I’d had it to do over again, I’d just killed her.”
Jones will be booked at the Riverside County Jail for attempted murder, home invasion robbery, burglary, animal cruelty and vehicle theft.
